Roasted Vegetable Polenta Lasagna

A creative vegetarian twist on lasagna with freshly roasted eggplant and a simple homemade marinara.

If you follow me on Facebook you will know I asked what you guys wanted for a recipe this week and this dish won! Roasted Vegetable Polenta Lasagna, yeah it is as awesome as it sounds. You got your basic food groups: grains, veggies and cheeeeeeese! What would lasagna be without cheese? Why can't I quit you cheese?

THIS is why I run! Cheese and beer!

Brown Butter Bacon Ice Cream

This ice cream is the ultimate in decadent indulgence with both brown butter and bacon! Give yourself the epic treat with this southern inspired brown butter bacon ice cream.

I apologize in advance to my vegetarian friends for defiling a usually innocent childhood treat. For yes a pig died and jumped into this ice cream, but at least it died to be in something so epic! 

Since bacon is the candy of meats it only seemed fitting to be in ice cream- AND since it was my birthday and I had a bacon theme for the food- then yeah it had to happen! (I also didn't wanna bake a cake since I don't have central AC) 80% of the time I am eating all healthy and shit, loving my veggies but I go to extremes and then things like this happen and since it was my birthday, it's totally justifiable, right?!

So I thought about how to properly pay homage to the king of cured meats and what would compliment it. I never got to brown butter or even try browned butter, but I liked the idea of the caramel notes it would bring and how that intensity of sweet would contrast with the salty. To further drive this home I used brown sugar for most of the sweetness because it goes with the southern roots and the molasses added to brown sugar perfectly goes with most meats and rubs already. This all sounds fancy, but most of this is deeply intuitive, I am somehow able to taste something before I make it. So that is how my crazy train brain just works.

So basically this ice cream is a heart attack waiting to happen, but you will enjoy your last few breaths at least. You may enjoy it so much that you will make a vat of it to bathe in and roll around in to eat your way out of. Make this and eat responsibly. A little goes a loooong way!

What you need

3 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 3/4 cup milk

(reserve 1-2 tablespoons of milk to mix with corn starch)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (can sub with vanilla extract)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon rendered bacon fat   (eeek I know, I'm sooooo soooo bad)

3 slices of bacon cooked crisp and cut into tiny bits (I used Trader Joe's Black Forest Bacon)

How to make it

1- Whisk together cornstarch and 1-2 tablespoons of your milk, set aside.

2- Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat, I recommend using a stainless steel pan so you can see the butter turn brown. Here is a great brown butter tutorial!

3- Remove the butter from heat once it's browned, add in your brown sugar and let is dissolve into that magical brown butter.

4- Place pot back on medium heat whisking in your heavy cream,milk, and vanilla bean paste.

5- Once it comes to a boil remove from heat and whisk in cornstarch and milk mixture.

6- Place back on heat and add the rendered bacon fat. Stir well until slightly thickened. (enough to coat spoon once removed)

7- Place in fridge overnight with the slices of bacon to infused it. (Don't chop up the bacon just yet, it will get stuck when the ice cream is churning.

8- Remove bacon slices and churn ice cream as instructed by ice cream maker

9- Add chopped up bacon pieces (I used food processor)

10- Freeze to set and serve!

Hops and Nuts Ice Cream #ICTScoopAdventures #Giveaway

This ice cream that is a love poem to one of the four ingredients to beer: hops. Using citra hops I decided to add some citrus peel to bring out the citrus of the hops and honey to compliment it. This is one decadent treat  for the craft beer lover.

Tuesday is not my normal posting day, but once again I have a treat for you, quite literally! I am participating in another special #IceCreamTuesday, this week we are celebrating the release of Scoop Adventures, The Best Ice Cream of the 50 States. As soon as I got this book and looked over Lindsay's blog I was immediately inspired by the Boozy Scoops and then I saw the one I loved the most. It was meant to be- my eyes locked on the Hops & Nuts Ice Cream and there was no going back!

Gyro Sliders with Creamy Dill Yogurt Sauce

Gyro meets slider in this epic yet small bite. No lamb needed, just regular beef spiced to perfection to match that gyro flavor, topped with a tangy dill yogurt sauce!

This may be my BEST creation yet! I have made them 3 times now, that is how much I LOVE them! I am pretty sure I have told you I don't make something more than once unless I REALLY love it- even my own recipes. I am like that way with beer too! (That is how I have amassed an impressive 315 beers on untapped)

It all started one night... I was talking to my husband over dinner about what kind of restaurant I would open (if I ever did) and I decided it would be American pub food with a twist. So in discussing what kind of burgers I would create for the menu I decided there should be a Greek burger- it would be like a gyro. It would taste like a gyro in burger form with some sort of yogurt sauce... so the words were spoken and so this was born!

I researched common spices in a gyro and developed this fantastic spice blend. Just the right amount of spiciness with 1 tbsp of cayenne for that kick to your taste buds. Then with the smoked paprika give it a little smokiness and also give the delicious dribbling fat juices an orange hue. The drippings are also delicious when the slider's bottom bun picks up some of the luscious fat juices- even the bun become a joy to eat!

Moroccan Chicken Gyros

This Spicy Moroccan twist on the classic gyro will ignite your taste buds and make the summer taste that much better!

I am constantly inspired by the amount of creativity and talent of my food blogging peers out there. One of my faves has to be Half Baked Harvest. Besides her ridiculously amazing photos, there is this off the wall creativity in her flavor combos as well as amazing execution and knowledge of so many different techniques! She also happens to be like REALLY young, like 20! What?! I know sooo crazy!

Well when I saw this recipe for Spring Veggie + Lemon Moroccan Chicken Skewers with Minted Goat Cheese Yogurt I swooned!! I mean imagine all those Moroccan spices cooled down with a minted goat cheese yogurt. It was as amazing as I imagined, like soooo soooo freaking good I needed to share it with all of you!! The marinade for this makes chicken MAGIC!

Pineapple Upside-Down Pancakes

This is by far the best pancake recipe I have ever tried, with the addition of caramelized pineapple and Homemade Pineapple Malibu syrup you will have yourself a foodgasm!  

I have been on a roll with pineapple recipes, I guess you could say I'm obsessed. Sometimes you are inspired by recipes you see and sometimes you become obsessed and carried away with an ingredient. It's kinda like when you have a new favorite song or album and you listen to it over and over and over until you cannot listen to it again.... (well maybe a year later). That is what I did with Lady Gaga's first album, and now I cannot hear "Poker Face" even one more time...

So instead of "Poker Face" it's pineapple, even more specifically caramelized pineapple! I mean pineapple is totoally amamzingly delicious on it's own, but when you caramelize it - like magic it's sweeter and totally reduces the acidity. So you are left with the BEST part of the pineapple- the flavor and sweetness and the caramelized sugar on the outside. It is the bees knees or even the cat's ass (whatever you prefer)!

A Vegan Foodgasm: Double IPA Braised Bean and Salsa Verde Bowl

This is one badass vegan and gluten free recipe that is sure to satisfy even the most carnivorous of friends kicked up with some California craft beer action!

So proud, this is my very first attempt at a Vegan recipe and it is pretty badass at that! It also happens to be gluten free! Not just some normal meal with no animals harmed in any way... but it is filling and totally kick ass complete vegan meal busting at the seams from the flavor EXPLOSION! Did I also mention it is made with some BEER!

It is well known, there are two things I don't fuck around with, FOOD and BEER!

So yeah I went ALLLL the way over the top for this puppy! I have been talking to my friend The Beer Wench and she wanted to know if any good vegetarian recipes existed for beer, there is of course the obvious beer mac and cheese, maybe beer cheese soup. But I took this shit to a whole nother level and went straight to vegan.... did I mention I like a challenge?!

#Beermonth Begins with a Chocolate Stout Shake!

For those of you that have been following me for a while you will remember #Beermonth from last year. It is a month where I celebrate my love for craft beer with: recipes, articles, reviews and more from me and some of my blogging friends! This year I have my friend Lauren from Hall's Nesting, Jessica from Jessiker Bakes, Melissa from Drunk and Unemployed and Nicole from Nibbles by Nic.You can expect BIG recipe posts 4/16 and 4/30 from ALL of us and maybe some articles and general craft beer love coming your way!

The Story of Beer Month...

My love of craft beer started with The Gateway to Craft Beer, Pumpkin Spice. I think you ladies know what I am talking about. If not this is the magic that is pumpkin spice ale- It is ale brewed with pumpkin and spices and then in NY (as I understand this is not done everywhere) they rim the glass with pumpkin spice sugar. TO- DIE- FOR. I fell and I fell hard for the spice. The spice captured my heart and then I just had to know more about craft beer.

I moved on to other fruit beers. One of my first faves was Bluepoint Blueberry Ale, so delicious and perfect in the summer. Then I tried Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Then I really started getting adventurous and ventured onto the dark side. Dark beers- dun dun dun **cue scary music**

I learned one thing- never to judge a beer by it's color. Just like with people, you should see what's happening on the inside. While I don't encourage you to lick a person to see if they're any good... I do encourage you to at least take a simple sip of a beer. At worst, you can easily spit it our if you don't like it.

Since I had my own blog I knew I had to incorporate cooking and beer together for a month of craft beer love.

Since my love of craft beer grew, it blossomed into a new direction for me. I write for 2 magazines about local craft beer and have become completely immersed with the craft beer culture here on Long Island. Beer month was born so I can share recipes with local craft beer and give you a little taste of the local scene and happenings.

Since I never drink alone- I always invite some bloggers to get in on the fun with me!
I have some surprises too! This month I will be brewing my VERY own beer with The Brewers Collective, a local group of home brewers. I strongly believe that homebrewers' creativity heavily influences the nano and craft brew market. With homebrew you can take those chances and you know I like to get creative!

Now for the reason you are all here- this drippy mess of deliciousness that I call A Chocolate Stout Milkshake...

I have been going to a local restaurant, Relish, for a while now. The food is always fresh, as local as it can be and inventive while still being incredibly comforting and inviting. No small portion or names you cannot pronounce or understand. This is down to earth, creative twists on classic comfort. A place that anyone can feel comfortable. When I heard they were serving beer, I was excited. When I saw they had a Guinness Milk Shake, I had to try it and WOAH it stopped me in my tracks, I clutched my chest to keep my heart still. It was way better than I ever expected.

Chocolate and Stouts are  not an uncommon combination at all. If you follow one of my faves, The Beeroness, You will see stout and chocolate are a "thing", basically mouth magic! The dark maltiness of a stout already had notes of chocolate present often, so to add it to a chocolate recipe further pushes the bounderies.

So I thank Relish in Kings Park, NY for this recipe! It rocks HARD!

Why is this a Foodgasm?

This is pretty easy to answer, chocolate ice cream + stout beer = MAGIC.
But to balance it out there is caramel and chocolate syrup for a little more sweet-ness as stouts sometimes have a bitter edge to them.

Samoa Energy Truffles

So I have been seeing a lot of these great recipes that replicate a cliff bar or to make your own cereal bars, etc. It intrigued me, mostly because most of those bars you buy at the store have preservatives, chemicals, high fructose corn syrup etc. At the start of my healthy eating and weight loss journey, I looked for anything as long as it was low fat and now that is starting to change for me. I learned of all the crap that is put into processed food. So now I try and eat very little processed food (food in a box) or stick to Trader Joe's stuff (which has no preservatives, chemicals, GMO's etc.). With all these energy bars and protein bars out there, I thought I would give making my own a shot. Looking over some recipes I was inspired by these almond joy bites by Gimme Some Oven. I wanted mine to be a little indulgent and also fun like these, so I made a Samoa version.

Little chocolate salty balls that are just the right balance of what you want and what you need! You need energy that won't make you crash and you wanna eat a Samoa cookie to get it. This is not as good as a Samoa- it's better!

Why is this a Foodgasm?

Fudgey, soft, round balls covered in toasted coconut and drizzled in caramel and melted dark chocolate- 'nuff said there. But this texture doesn't come from fat- in fact you won't believe what gives it this texture. Dates! Okay don't be grossed out and think I'm tricking you into eating some nasty health food. Give it a shot and you will taste the magic and fall in love with these balls! 

These balls are da shit! Whole foods for the win! If you want these gluten or grain free just sub the graham crackers for more nuts of your choice.

To be clear these are healthy, but not a diet food. Eat 1 or two for some hunger fighting power to get through to dinner or before a workout. But definitely don't eat many since there's sugar and fat in these- HEALTHY sugars and fat. But I want to make sure if you are trying to lose weight you won't eat a ton of these! LOL! That said they have LOTS of fiber, some protein and natural sugars that won't make you crash!

Bonus about this post- ball jokes! Gotta love it! Especially balls you can put in your mouth. OMGeeee the jokes are endless!

What you need

12 oz mejool dates (unpitted) You can also sub regular dates, but you may wanna soak them so they become soft.
1 cup pistachios (Other nut if you like)
1 cup crushed graham crackers
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons melted dark chocolate
1/4 cup toasted coconut

To finish em off you need:
1/3 cup toasted coconut (to roll the balls in)
caramel sauce to drizzle (I used Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce)
Melted Dark chocolate to drizzle ( I used 1/4 bar or 1 oz. of dark chocolate in all including what I put in the balls)

How to make them

1- So I put in the dates in the food processor first and I added about 1/4- 1/3 cup warm water to help them combine.
2- Add in everything else and let 'er rip. It may take some negotiation and you may need to scrape the sides time to time
3- Roll balls in your hand and roll in toasted coconut.
4- Drizzle with caramel and melted chocolate

Nutritional Information

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Torte and a Giveaway

This is my gratuitous Valentine's Day post. For so many years I loathed this holiday. It is the single gal's day to remember she is single. I remember in college all my friend and I didn't have a boyfriend, so we all banned together and had our own little party (under the bandstand of the college). That was one of my favorite Valentine's Days yet! So all you single ladies don't feel bad, feel empowered because V-Day is just silly even when you have a man or woman.

But still I felt compelled to make a cutesy little cake with strawberry hearts baked into it. I guess I have those two sides: the Martha Stewart and the chick that drinks craft beer and swears. Or as my husband said best: "You are like Martha Stewart, but you say fuck a lot." Yeah that sums me up. That is also why I need to start making videos for you guys! It would be loads of fun for you to meet me, like really get to know me.

But if you love or loathe this holiday- here is an incentive to at least like it. I made you a crazy delish chocolate covered strawberry torte literally with strawberry and chocolate in it and on it. But I have another surprise for you a GIVEAWAY! A really gorgeous handcrafted apron from Guate Love It.